Loaded trash train just left Leominster, did not get a chance to count the cars.
Arcadia Terminal Street & Dock R.R
Railroad Forums
Moderator: MBTA F40PH-2C 1050
arcadia terminal wrote: ↑Mon May 04, 2020 5:16 pm The new C&D customer looks like it is shipping 10 to 12 cars every other day, they are now doing drop offs and pick ups on Sunday.B724 north through Northborough at 1345 on Sunday (Mother's Day) with six lumber loads and four empties for C&D.
arcadia terminal wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 5:07 pm Production track gang started work Monday 5/18 Leominster yard and are working towards Framingham, they are doing approx 24 miles this season. Replacing every 3 to 4 ties and more if needed. one of the workers stated even with all this work the branch may still be limited to 10mph. Grade crossings are being redone also. They should be down to Prat Junction by 5/20I am not surprised it will still be at 10 MPH - a lot of the rail is old, and lightweight, and joint bars are in bad shape all over the place. When Conrail redid the line in the late 1970s, it was rated at 25 MPH and they maintained that speed for many years until the CSXT error (era) where they have deferred a lot of maintenance on the line since assuming ownership.
arcadia terminal wrote: ↑Tue May 19, 2020 5:07 pm Production track gang started work Monday 5/18 Leominster yard and are working towards Framingham, they are doing approx 24 miles this season. Replacing every 3 to 4 ties and more if needed. one of the workers stated even with all this work the branch may still be limited to 10mph. Grade crossings are being redone also. They should be down to Prat Junction by 5/20Perhaps another reason the line may be kept at 10 MPH is that several years ago, CSXT shortened the grade crossing circuits to a length that activated the warning devices for the required time of no less than 20 seconds prior to the train occupying the crossing at a speed of 10 MPH. If they brought the line up to 25 MPH standards again, they would have to lengthen each crossing circuit to provide the warning time at 25 MPH. Saves on bonding, maintenance, etc., although I would imaging it is less expensive over the long haul to do that than paying a crew to retrieve an outlawed train over and over again. Then again, we are dealing with CSXT logic!
QB 52.32 wrote: ↑Sat May 23, 2020 10:36 am Good to see CSX spending some money on the Fitchburg Secondary.QB 52.32, they HAD to spend some money on the line. Although there was a significant tie replacement and resurfacing project through Southborough last year, but I don't believe it went much further north than Ken's foods in Marlborough. There are many sections through Northborough and Berlin where there are numerous ties in a row that are disintegrated, tie plates broken in two, joint bars cracked through right at the rail joint, and track that looks like the back of a camel. Given the amount of heavy loads carried north of the welded rail section of track that ends at Lyman Street in Northborough (lumber loads for Bestway, and now the new recycle customer in Leominster), I am surprised that there have not been more derailments on the line.
Besides the initial post-Penn Central Conrail investment, their next big late-1980's investment was only made for the safety of handling Inhalation Hazard traffic moving at the time. Once that traffic was gone, I have little doubt Conrail would have managed investment much as CSX has. There's just no financial justification, given a variety of factors in this situation, to spend the kind of money needed to have kept/make this a 25 mph railroad --- that could only be done with taxpayer money.